‘All men are bad’ says a Judge in LE CERCLE ROUGE (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970), ‘they’re born innocent but are quickly corrupted. In this film, two of the main ones are crooks: Corey (Alain Delon) just released from prison; Vogel (Gian Maria Volonté) recently escaped capture and on the run. The two others are cops: Inspector Mattei (André Bourvil) who’s chasing Vogel; and Jansen (Yves Montand) now an alcoholic and open to a heist. All are lonely: the inspector returning home to his cats, Corey returning from prison to find his girlfriend with an old crony and his apartment full of dust; Jansen alone battling nightmares brought on by alcoholism; Mattei, is in hiding. They get together for a heist at Boucheron on the Place Vendome, a triumph, only to be caught and shot by the Inspector and his men at the end. It’s a beautiful, fatalistic film, the mood constructed by the framing, wide, but sparsely peopled. On this viewing, what I noticed most was sound. It has no extra-diegetic music that I can detect. Most of it is heard in the nightclub scenes. There are a few moments where I’m unsure but I attribute the soft jazz to the car radio. There are entire scenes with the only sound we hear is diegetic and then singled out – brough to the fore singly — for narrative purposes: the sound of footsteps, or doors unlocking. All of this adds to the loneliness and alienation evoked by the imagery. Yet none of this adds up to futility. It’s as if each of the main characters, unafraid of death, find purpose and meaning in doing what they do best, even if it contravenes social norms and ends in the red circle we’re warned off in the opening title. Women in this film signify merely sex and betrayal. This is a marvellous disc, by Studio Canal, showcasing its first restoration, the 140 minute version beautifully shot by the great Henri Decaë, with lots of extras, including an introduction by Ginette Vincendeau.
On a side note, it’s surprising how little Melville appears in film noir festivals considering how he is one of the greatest directors in that particular vernacular.
José Arroyo